According to China s National Citizen Identity Information Center, 5,547,124 people in China were born on January 1, or Yuandan, and more than 6,000 were named after it.In Chinese, "yuan" means "the beginning," and "dan" means "day." Thus, "Yuandan" means "the beginning day," or the first day of a year, the Beijing Evening News reported.Among the thousands of Yuandans, 618 people have the surname Yuan and first name Dan, while 5,659 people simply have the first name of Yuandan. There are 1,735 people not only born on Yuandan, but also named after it.
From 1949, when January 1 of solar calendar was formally confirmed as New Year s Day, the number of people named Yuandan increased significantly.